My first fantasy football experience was way back in 2008, when McDonalds was creating a fantasy football competition for UEFA Euro Cup in Austria-Switzerland. Fantasy football itself didn't actually built specifically for soccer game. This fantasy football is known as fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto).

It was in 1962, the time when the first fantasy football was born, and it was for the American Football. The idea is that sports fans could draft the skill players from pro football teams onto their own imaginary teams, and play weekly games against their friends in a league that rewarded the team with the best record.

As for fantasy football game (in U.S they call it soccer), the original game was created in 1991 in England by Andrew Wainstein. Andrew decided to adapt this fantasy sport into football after witnessing the huge success of similar game for American Football in 1980s.

Now, fantasy football has grown so much, that its popularity can now be compared with its predecessor. There are wide variety of adoption in fantasy football game, but with how technology has evolved, there are several sites that hosting fantasy football competititon. One of them is the official fantasy football of Barclays Premiere League.

And now when the mobile is going to take over how we deal with internet, fantasy football has shifted their route into mobile as well. From The Bench Games surely sees this opportunity to enter a market that is still pretty quiet from competition.

From The Bench isn't a new kid from the block, founded in September 2007, this Spain-based video game developer has developed several fantasy sport games. It even got a official license from NBA to create a fantasy basketball game. Not only from NBA, FTB has held a total 400 player licenses, they also held player licenses from Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Liverpool FC.

This reputation brings them to their latest product, a fantasy football game that's called Fantasy Manager Football 2016.

Fantasy Manager Football 2016 - The Premise

In Fantasy Manager Football 2016, you will become the General Manager of team that you can choose. There are total 40 official football clubs ready for you to choose, and also other unofficial teams that also can be chosen, only with placeholder for their suits.

Upon choosing your team, you will get several players to complete your imaginary team. These players are not from the clubs that you choose. So it's up to you if you want to include them in your lineup or not. Your team strength will be depending on your lineup, if the players in your lineup are performing well in their last match, they will get a good score and your team will also have a good strength.

Yes, the players strength in Fantasy Manager Football 2016 are reflecting from their real match. How they decide the point of each player, are also using the rule of fantasy football. For example, a player will be rewarded with +60 points if they play as a starter and if their team won, an additional 60 points will be given. There are several categories including scoring, assists, and even clean sheet is taken into consideration.

Fantasy Manager Football 2016 - The Gameplay

After you've built your first eleven, you can bring them together to fight against other players to collect some coins. There are several ways to challenge other players. Play random match, joining regular league, and still much more things you can do with your team.

There's also transfer market that you can use, to strengthen your team. There are three ways to strengthen your team. The first one is with BUY NOW mode. In this mode, you can use coins (premium currency) to purchase player of your choice and that player will be yours. There's also player of the day that can be bought with cash. That player however, only available for a certain time.

The next mode is called AUCTIONS. Within this mode you'd be able to compete with other players and bid your favorite player. In this mode, you have to pay 1 coins everytime you want to bid a player. Cash afterwards will be used to finalize the deal.

The last mode is the LOANS. In this mode, you need to connect your Facebook account with the game. Once you've connected, you can borrow your friends player and use it inside your team. Well, that being said, if you have friends that also play the game too.

Beside the transfer market, you can also have your coach improve your lineup strength by training the player. The player that's not inside the first eleven can be trained and after certain time, that player stats will be increased 5% per level.

Fantasy Manager Football 2016 - Things I Like

I love the dynamism that's done inside Fantasy Manager Football 2016. You never know your team power, until your players have done a match in real life. The player won't be given any score if they didn't play or their team is performing really bad, so a big name sometimes won't be able to help. A not so famous player, as long as they keep their regular position would have a better score.

I also love the ability to bid player while competing against other users. Sometimes it's frustrating when you thought you've finally secured the deal, but then another user coming and put a higher bid. Nevertheless, that's how the game works and it's more fun that way.

Conclusion

Fantasy Manager Football 2016 is a fun game for football management simulation. Despite being free-to-play and using energy before playing a match, the auction, being able to play with other users and seeing superstars playing under your command is a satisfying experience.

About FROM THE BENCH

From The Bench is a company from Alicante formed in 2008 by 4 entrepreneurs with more than 10 years of experience in developing multiplatform applications. Everything began casually when they created nuestraliga.com, a gaming platform on which the fans could convert themselves into a sports manager. Today, From The Bench is a company with clear international vocation specialized in the gaming world and focused on a new multiplatform game format (iOS, Android, Amazon, Web...). They launched Fantasy Manager in 2010, a game in which the user can convert himself into the head coach, manager or sports director of a football team. Real Madrid was the first club to join and soon after, more teams followed such as AC Milán, Borussia Dortmund and FC Liverpool. In 2013, they launched NBA General Manager, an official application of the NBA. In 2014, they continued their expansion in the American market thanks to their new projects, Baseball General Manager and Football Franchise, games with the license of the Players Associations of the MLB and NFL.

Current information about From The Bench: they're leaders in the sports mobile game sector with more than 40 million downloads, and more than 2 million active users. They also have agreements with the main sports organizations such as the NBA, MLBPA, NFLPA as well as the more than 40 official football clubs they have signed agreements with.